This time of year is special to me for a couple of reasons.
It's one of only two times a year that I do math. I calculate the minimum grade I need on my finals to maintain whatever grades I currently have.
Look, if I'm stuck in a system that forces me to take a sociology class when I have ...

There are certain words that, when placed together, make one jump to conclusions. A word like "chlamydia," for instance, when placed in a sentence with "increase," will lead to conclusions like, "Oh my god, Chico State is being overrun with chlamydia." This may or may not have been my brash reaction aft...

I've learned a number of things in my three and a half years in Chico.
Some are basic nuggets of know-how; for example, always, no matter what, check your school email before you go to class. You never know when a golden "class is canceled" ticket will be waiting for you.
Others are more serious, like...

"This is a terrible decision," I think to myself. One of those decisions I'll look back on later and wonder what I was thinking.
It's dark — about 11:30 p.m. This seems to always be about the time I'm leaving the gym. I'm terrible at time management. The day seems to just slip away and I usually...

A picture is worth a thousand words, but in journalism, the cost at which that story comes is sometimes greater than the words are worth.
It's a line the mainstream media has trouble walking during coverage of tragic events. Show too little of what happened, and the public feels cheated out of fa...

I'm a sellout. At least, that's what it feels like. I have a professional Twitter account where I tweet about relevant newsworthy topics and retweet exciting tidbits about journalism and other tedious things.I have a Wordpress blog supposedly devoted to all things "Professional Matt", albeit I don't use i...

Imagine working at a job. If you've never had a job, ask yourself what you're doing with your life and then rifle through examples you've witnessed. Now imagine that there is no contract for this job, so you can be let go at any time and pay is not guaranteed.
Chico State faculty members don'...

Nothing makes me feel light-years away from adulthood like hearing about young marriage.
My parents met as undergrads, and if memory serves me right, I was born before my mom finished graduate school.
I don't think that was so uncommon for my parents' generation. People started their lives...

Men are in trouble. Serious trouble.
To riff on a bit by the great Jerry Seinfeld, our organization has seen better days. Ever since Adam went rogue and ate that dumb piece of fruit, we've been playing catch up.
We are in a perpetual state of damage control. Women can partially relate to this...

Ah, it's that time of the month again. Bills and rent are due and it's time for me to find out just how much I've spent on my weekly Domino's Pizza binges.
I dread opening the banking app on my phone. Even when I know how much I've spent, I still don't like to see the number.
It's something I'...

There's a lot of great things about being a dude. I spend little to no time getting ready to go anywhere, and the only shoes I own with a heel are for power lifting.
I never have to physically experience the horror that is childbirth, and I've been bestowed an amount of testosterone that once helped ...

I remember when I found out Matthew Perry was going through a pill addiction while on "Friends."
I was shocked. I had been living under a veil of ignorance.
I thought it was a little strange when he gained all that weight halfway through the series. He had that "going through some stuff" l...